Brexit, Eton College & The History of Toronto

The most famous boarding school in the world has just gotten a little bit more famous. Thanks to the shocking result of the Brexit referendum, Eton College has been popping up in the news. The posh boarding school is where two of the architects of the mess spent their teenage years. Prime Minster David Cameron and Boris Johnson, the former Mayor of London, both graduated from Eton in the early 1980s.

So if you want to understand the breathtaking, aristocratic entitlement that led the United Kingdom into self-inflicted disaster, it helps to understand Eton. And in understanding Eton, you can also better understand the history of our own city — because it's not just where Boris and Dave went, it's where the man who founded Toronto went, too.

Eton sits on the banks of the Thames, not far outside London, just across the river from Windsor Castle. It was founded all the way back in the 1400s; King Henry VI started the school as a charity meant to provide free education to the poor.

But oh how things have changed since then. In recent centuries, Eton has made its reputation by catering to the children of the rich and powerful, helping to perpetuate the strict British class system. Yearly tuition can cost as much as the equivalent of $60,000 in Canadian currency. For a long time, the school's official uniform was literally a top hat and tails. (They finally ditched the top hat in the 1960s, but they've kept the tails.) The school is synonymous with the idea of British entitlement: that the children of the country's ruling class should naturally become its next generation of rulers.

Nineteen British Prime Ministers have been students at Eton. Both Prince Harry and Prince William went there, too. So did George Orwell and Aldous Huxley and Percy Shelley and John Maynard Keynes. And if you're counting fictional characters, then so did James Bond and Captain Hook and Lord Grantham from Downton Abbey. 

Eton College

And so, it's not surprising to find that two of today's most powerful Conservative politicians both went to Eton, too. The outgoing Prime Minster, David Cameron (inept champion of Remain), and the former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson (Leave-supporting buffoon), both graduated from Eton in the early 1980s. They say you can trace the roots of their rivalry all the way back there — and with it, some of the very beginnings of the Brexit disaster.

As a student, Boris was older, more popular and more successful than Cameron — things that mattered even more than usual at such an aristocratic school. And since Johnson did better at Eton — and then again when both young men attended Oxford University — they say it drives him nuts that Cameron has risen to greater heights since then. Boris might be the former Mayor of London, a current Member of Parliament, and a newspaper columnist who got paid more than £250,000 last year (or "chicken feed" as he calls it) for writing one article every week — but that, apparently, isn't enough.

"Yes," Sonia Purnell writes in The Independent, "the fact that Cameron was two years below him at Eton – a terrifically hierarchical school – rankles deeply. As does the fact that it was Boris who shone there, not Cameron. Masters recall Johnson as a remarkable teenager. They do not recall Cameron at all."

According to countless media reports, Boris made it his mission to topple his old friend Dave and take his place as Prime Minster. If that meant joining the Leave campaign... well, that's what he was willing to do — whether or not he actually believed that leaving the European Union was a good idea for Britain.

Meanwhile, some suggest that Cameron's lifelong sense of entitlement — reinforced by his time at Eton — gave him a false sense of his own superiority. Slate describes him as "an establishment man through and through... the sort of person who gets away with too many things and comes to mistake his privilege for innate luck." When given the chance to gamble the future of his country in return for his own personal political gain, he did so. After all, he's been getting his way his entire life. Why would this time be any different? In order to appease the lunatic far-right fringe of his party, Cameron agreed to hold the Brexit referendum, confident that a Leave vote would never actually happen.

Boris and Dave

But when Boris — who is thought to have personally reassured Cameron that he would never support the Leave campaign — betrayed his old friend the Prime Minister, things suddenly became much more complicated. Johnson's support gave legitimacy to the Leave faction, even while it descended into absurd lies and bigoted violence. The racists behind Brexit never would have won, according to The Daily Beast, "without the fig leaf of Boris's charm."

The result: a stunning victory for the Leave campaign, an economy in disarray, bigotry and xenophobia on the rise, the murder of an MP, the end of Cameron's career, and scenes of Boris Johnson being booed the moment he pokes his head outside his front door. The Old Etonians have suddenly become two of the most hated men in the country they were raised to rule.

And in the end, Johnson's plan didn't even work: betrayed, in turn, by one of his own supporters (die-hard-Brexiter Michael Gove), Johnson has been forced out of the race for PM.

But the power of Eton College hasn't just been limited to British politics. Thanks to the Empire, the school's reach has historically extended far beyond England's own borders. In Toronto, you can trace Eton's influence all the way back to the founding of our modern city. More than two hundred years before Boris and Dave, there was John Graves Simcoe.

Simcoe went to Eton in the 1760s. And he too bought into its aristocratic vision for Britain. Years later, when he became the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, he was determined to make that aristocratic heritage an important part of his new province.

Before he sailed for Canada, Simcoe got in touch with another Eton graduate: the famous scientist Sir Joseph Banks. In his letter, Simcoe asked for any advice Banks might be able to offer, and laid out his vision for his new Upper Canadian capital: the city that would eventually become Toronto.

A strict class system, he insisted, would play a vital role. Simcoe didn't trust the general public; they couldn't be allowed to have real power. As a solider, he'd seen the bloody results of the American Revolution with his own eyes — and more recently, he'd heard the terrifying reports coming out of Paris during the French Revolution. In fact, the Reign of Terror began the very same summer Simcoe founded Toronto. In his experience, when the people gained power, they had a nasty habit of beheading the elites. And so Simcoe was determined that his new city would be free from what he called "tyrannical democracy."

"There are inherent defects in the congressional form of Government," he wrote in his letter to Banks, "the absolute prohibition of any order of nobility is a glaring one. I hope to have a hereditary council with some mark of nobility."

John Graves Simcoe

He would never quite get his wish: Toronto never developed an officially aristocratic system like the one they had back home in England. But Simcoe did make sure that power rested in the hands of a few loyal Tory families. For the first few decades of our city's history, families like the slave-owning Jarvis clan kept all of the best government jobs and appointments for themselves and their friends. The habit would eventually earn Toronto's ruling class a derisive nickname: The Family Compact.

With the backing of their British overlords, the Family Compact dominated the Legislative Assembly, blocked all democratic reform, and cracked down on dissent. Anyone who disagreed with the Tory elite or demanded change quickly found themselves subject to threats and intimidation — sometimes even violence or imprisonment.

The Family Compact had no doubt they were meant to be the natural rulers of the province — a sense of entitlement that would look familiar to anyone who has been following Boris and Dave during the Brexit fiasco.

To help ensure that the power of the Family Compact would continue long into the future, they even founded a Torontonian version of Eton. It's still around today: Upper Canada College. The school's own website describes it as being "modeled after the great public schools of Britain [what we call private schools in Canada], most notably Eton College." UCC's job would much be the same as Eton's job on the other side of the Atlantic: training the sons of the rich and powerful to become the new generation of elites.

And it worked. As Wikipedia points out, "The school has produced six lieutenant governors, four premiers, seven chief justices, and four Mayors of Toronto." There have been plenty of other rich and powerful graduates, too, like Michael Ignatieff and Norm Kelly. In Toronto, the Old Boys of Upper Canada College have played something of a similar role to that of the Old Etonians in England.

But not everyone in Toronto was happy with the Family Compact. There was plenty of resentment against the ruling class in those early years. The opposition gained momentum over the city's first few decades, building into a reform movement led by the radical newspaper publisher and first Mayor of Toronto, William Lyon Mackenzie. He was becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of democracy in Upper Canada. He made appeal after appeal to the British government, but his complaints fell on deaf ears — which was maybe not entirely surprising: nearly all of the British Prime Ministers during that period were Old Etonians themselves.

William Lyon Mackenzie

In the end, Mackenzie finally gave up on trying to find a peaceful solution; after a disappointing trip to London, he became convinced that revolution was the only way to break the Family Compact's grip on power. In 1837, he gathered an army north of Toronto and marched down toward the city with the aim of overthrowing the government.

Even the street the rebels marched down was a reminder of Eton's influence. Simcoe named the biggest road in Toronto after another one of his Old Etonian friends: Sir George Yonge.

In the end, of course, Mackenzie's rebellion failed. Democratic reform came peacefully a decade later under the name of Responsible Government. The leading champion of the cause was the moderate Robert Baldwin, who had been educated by the leader of the Family Compact. And Baldwin was able to convince the British of its value thanks in part to the support of Lord Durham, yet another Eton graduate. Change didn't come to Canada until the people advocating for it were members of the old boys club themselves.

More than a hundred and fifty years later, you can still see some echoes of that seminal divide in the Toronto politics of today. We saw it on stunning display recently, when Rob Ford was able to frame his mayoral campaign as a campaign against the "elites" by positioning himself as an outsider and purposefully distancing himself from the traditional, Upper Canada College-style Tories. Those who felt ignored by the establishment voted for Ford in droves. Casting a ballot for an apparent outsider seemed like a rare opportunity to give voice to their anger.

Last week, we saw similar emotions lead to similar results in the United Kingdom. The Leave side denounced the experts and vilified the establishment even though the leaders of the Leave campaign were establishment figures themselves. Boris Johnson has made a career out of playing the blond buffoon, trying to seem like a man of the people instead of a millionaire raised in privilege. The Brexiters, much like Ford, managed to convince vast numbers of people that the real cause of their problems was a dastardly combination of expert opinion and immigration. Not, say, the damaging policies those very same Conservative politicians have been hawking for decades: like tax cuts for the rich paid for by service cuts for everyone else. 

Both campaigns were illusions. Rob Ford was a millionaire born into a political family. His policies were the same old Conservative policies that have been hurting the working class for years. His successor, the aptly-named John Tory, is the most establishment-friendly politician you could possibly imagine — and in general his policies are pretty much in line with those Ford was pushing. Even a vote against the establishment led to establishment-friendly policies; they were just served with a side of crack cocaine.
 

And now, six thousand kilometers and an entire ocean away, angry Britons have voted in protest against their own elites, unleashing a wave of bigotry and decimating their nation's economy in the process. They have managed to drive their establishment-friendly leader out of power; Cameron, forced to resign in disgrace, will be remembered as one of the worst Prime Ministers in modern British history. But if all goes to plan, even with Johnson out of the race, there will be yet another establishment-friendly Tory leader moving into 10 Downing Street in just a few months time, ready to pick up right where the last one left off.  

The Old Etonian is dead. Long live the Old Etonian.

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Via Viv Lynch on Flickr

You can learn more about the connection between the histories of Toronto and England with A Torontonian Historical Map of London here. Read more about Simcoe's vision for Toronto here. And more about Mackenzie's failed mission to London here.

There's a whole dramatized documentary about Johnson and Cameron's early years, "When Boris Met Dave," which you can watch on Vimeo here.

The main image of "Toffs and Toughs" via Rare Historical Photos here.  Photo of Boris and Dave via The Sun. Photo of Eton College by me as part of The Toronto Dreams Project's UK Tour, which explored the connections between the history of Toronto and the United Kingdom.

Muzik In The Days Before Ford

Music Day at the CNE, 1959 (via)

As you might have noticed, Muzik Nightclub has been in the news a lot recently. For one, they successfully lobbied the Board of Directors of the CNE to make a moronic decision: banning electronic dance music parties on the Exhibition Grounds in Toronto's latest bid to become the town from Footloose. It was an especially worrying decision given that Rob Ford is on the Board of Directors of the CNE and is also a familiar, drunken face at the club that wanted to ban their competition. The owner of Muzik argued that EDM parties encourage underage drug and alcohol abuse — a giant fucking fudge cake of irony now that the most recent drug scandal from our crack-smoking mess of a Mayor involves that very same club. Ford's recent appearances at Muzik have allegedly included snorting lines of coke, puking in the bathroom, and getting in an argument with Justin Bieber.

But Muzik hasn't always been Muzik. Until recently, it was the CNE's Horticulture Building. It was built all the way back in 1907 — with an iconic glass dome — as a showcase for "agricultural, horticultural and floricultural displays." I came across a couple of photos of the building back in 2012, when I was digging through archives for photographs to leave at the Ex as part of the Toronto Dreams Project's Department of Photographic Hauntings. So I thought I'd take the chance now to share them on the blog.

The building also has a tragic connection to the worst disaster in Toronto's history. In 1949, the S.S. Noronic caught fire while it was docked downtown. More than 100 people died in the flames; more than in any other disaster to ever happen in our city. So many died, in fact, that the Horticulture Building was turned into a makeshift morgue. Some of the bodies were so badly burned that the authorities were forced to develop new techniques of dental X-ray identification in order to ID the victims.

It's quite possibly the saddest thing to ever happen in Toronto — and it happened on the exact same spot where more than 60 years later, our Mayor got into a stupid fight with a pop star about his drug use. (Um, the Mayor's drug use, that is, not the pop star's.)

The Horticulture Building, 1920 (via Toronto Then And Now)

The Horticulture Building in 1927 (via Chuckman's always awesome postcard blog)

Inside the Horticulture Building in 1950 (via Toronto Then And Now)

Victims of the Noronic fire in 1949 (via the Cleveland Plain Dealer)

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You can read my old post about the Noronic disaster here. And learn more about the Toronto Dreams Project's Department of Photographic Hauntings here. Metro has the story of the CNE's EDM ban here. The Star has the story of Ford's alleged coke-snorting, puking and Bieber fight here.

Ten Questions for Rob Ford (More Important Than The Crack One)

More than ten months have passed since the news of Rob Ford's crack video first broke. And while most of the world is focused on the Mayor's drug use, his drunken stupors and his bizarre viral videos, the police investigation continues. New court documents released this week are a reminder that while Ford finally did admit the crack video is real, he's still refusing to answer many of the most important questions related to the scandal. (He's even willing to violently plow through reporters in order to avoid having to answer them.) Substance abuse problems are just the tip of the Rob Ford iceberg. News reports and police documents have tied the Mayor's scandal to alleged kidnapping, home invasion, drug dealing, beatings, death threats, a killing, blackmail and extortion.

Here are ten of the most disturbing questions Toronto is still looking for answers to (many of them raised, of course, by allegations that have yet to be been proven in court):

1. Did you order Sandro Lisi to commit extortion?

So, you know, Sandro Lisi? Your former driver? The guy with a violent criminal past? The one who was recently convicted of making death threats? The one you hang out with in high school parking lots and stage elaborate package-drops with? Well, he's currently not only charged with drug trafficking and possession, but also with extortion. Police allege that in the first few days after the Star and Gawker reported the existence of the crack video, Lisi used "threats or violence or menaces" to get the video back. And according to the phone records, he started calling the guys with the video right after a phone call from you, Mr. Mayor, at the exact same time the crack story was breaking.

Police documents also allege that the man trying to sell the video was kidnapped two weeks later by members of the Dixon City Bloods: "They talked to Siad about 'the video.' Siad was crying, saying he destroyed the video and his family is in trouble. Abdi told Siad that if he saw him in Dixon he would kill him."

Did you order Sandro Lisi to commit extortion? Were you aware of, or involved with, the kidnapping and the death threat?

 
2. Did you order the attack at 15 Windsor?

Five days after the crack story was first published, someone broke into 15 Windsor, the alleged crack house where the video is thought to have been shot. The Toronto Star reported that "Fabio [Basso, the owner of the house], his girlfriend, and Fabio's mother were assaulted by an unknown attacker brandishing an expandable baton who broke into their home." They also say that Sandro Lisi had been seen there earlier that day. And the day before. According to a Star source, he confronted Basso on the front porch: "'Where are the guys who made the video, Fab,' Lisi said, according to a witness who was present. 'You know where they are.'"

Did you order that attack? Were you involved in the planning of it? Do you know anything about it?


3. Did you order a jailhouse beating?

You are currently being sued by your sister's ex-common-in-law partner, Scott MacIntyre. He says that back in 2012 you ordered one of your former football players to attack him while he was in jail. According to the Toronto Sun, the lawsuit alleges that the attack "left him with a fractured left leg, facial cuts and dental damage. Four or more of his teeth were sheared at the gum line". MacIntyre claims that you ordered the attack in retaliation for his threats to go public with your drug use and criminal connections.

He also claims that he wasn't transported to the hospital until 36 hours after the attack. And that he didn't receive dental care until almost two months later.

Did you order the jailhouse beating of Scott MacIntyre? Did you use connections inside the jail to pull it off — and to keep him from receiving timely treatment for his injuries?


4. Who did you threaten to kill?

In one of your many videos, Mr. Mayor, you are seen threatening to kill someone. "I'll fucking kill that guy," you shout. "I'm telling you, it's first-degree murder... No holds barred, brother. He dies or I die, brother... I'll rip his fucking throat out. I'll poke his eyes out... I'll make sure that motherfucker's dead..."

After the video came out, you admitted that it was "embarrassing" and that you were "extremely, extremely inebriated". But you refused to answer the most important questions.

Like, for instance, who were you threatening to kill?


5. What do you know about the killing of Anthony Smith?

You famously took a photo with alleged gang members outside 15 Windsor. Two of those men — Anthony Smith and Muhammad Khattak — were later shot outside a nightclub on King Street. Smith was killed in the shooting.

Police documents suggest they have found no link between the crack video and the shooting, but there have been many questions raised about the suspicious timing of Smith's death. And you've failed to answer them fully. Back on May 30, the Edmonton Sun wrote, "There is now widespread belief Smith was killed for his phone, which may have contained the video." The CBC reported that "some friends" of Smith believed "he might have had the video stored on his cellphone." And your (now former) chief of staff, Mark Towhey, later revealed that he heard a similar rumour in the days immediately following the first Gawker and Toronto Star reports about the video: "There were a lot of phone calls coming into the office from people... One of our staff received some information from someone he trusted that we didn't know... that [the video] might have been the motive for a murder."

What do you know about the killing of Anthony Smith? How did you meet him? How well did you know him? Did you believe that he knew about — or even had a copy of — the crack video?


6. How did you get your cellphone back?

Last April — a few weeks after Smith was killed and a few weeks before the crack story broke — your cellphone went missing. The National Post reports that you told your staff you lost it while you were cleaning up a park, that you must have left it on the hood of your car and driven off. But police wire taps tell a very different story. They suggest you were doing drugs at 15 Windsor that night. And that your phone was taken by alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods.

Sandro Lisi seems to have tracked it down. According to phone records released in the ITO (court documents submitted by police) last November, he called your cellphone 19 times over the course of 45 minutes in the wee hours of the morning. Later that day, he called Liban Siyad — one of the alleged gang members — and accused him of stealing it. According to the wire taps, he said you were "freaking out" and that you would "put heat on" the Dixon Road apartment complex if they didn't return the phone.

The wire taps suggest that Siyad and his friend ("The Juice Man") agreed to return the phone. They also said they had a photo of you smoking a pipe and had you "in a lot of fucked up situations." According to those wire taps, Lisi agreed to give them a quantity of marijuana in exchange for your phone.

Police also say that Siyad is one of the men who may have been targeted by Lisi's extortion over the crack video a few weeks later.

Did you order Lisi to get your cellphone back? Did you instruct him to exchange drugs for it? Were you willing to use your position as the Mayor of Toronto to "put heat on" a neighbourhood in order to keep your drug use and criminal connections a secret? And, while we're at it, were you ever blackmailed over the cellphone? Or the photo they mentioned? Or the crack video?


7. Have you used your power as Mayor in an attempt to obtain confidential information?

The police say that back in August, you realized someone was following you. They think you and your friends spotted their surveillance vehicle while you were hanging out in your old high school parking lot. Five days later, they say a member of your staff phoned the police to tell them you thought you were being followed. They gave the cops a license plate number that was just one number different from the plate of their surveillance vehicle. The police say they offered to speak with you directly, but you never followed up.

Instead, they say that your new chief of staff, Earl Provost, gave them a call; that he asked them for the registration information of the vehicle. That's confidential information — and the police told him so. According to the ITO, Provost said you were angry with him for not being able to "give him what he wants."

The police claim those actions "clearly indicate that Mayor FORD is utilizing his position and the powers of the Office of the Mayor, to obtain information not available to regular citizens... I believe that Mayor FORD was trying to get the registration information for the vehicle that he and LISI observed on August 18th, 2013."

Is that true, Mr. Mayor? Were you trying to abuse the powers of your office?


8. Have you been paying the bills at 15 Windsor? Or helping the owners get special treatment from the City?

In the ITO, police describe a notebook. They believe it belonged to you or one of your staffers, and say that it contained entries relating to the alleged crack house at 15 Windsor along with the water department and outstanding bills. The police document suggests, "One possible explanation for these entries could be that the Mayor is dealing with house maintenance and bill payment at 15 Windsor Rd."

According to a report by the Toronto Star, a city official told them that in January 2013, a member of your staff "called the city's water department on behalf of resident Fabio Basso regarding a sewage issue at 15 Windsor Rd."

Were you paying bills for a crack house? Did you use your power as the Mayor of Toronto to get them special, expedited treatment for their sewage issues?


9. Did you order a hacker to illegally delete the crack video?

According to a VICE source, at the same time the police say Sandro Lisi was busy with his extortion, one of your current staffers (who was working for your brother, Councillor Doug Ford, at the time, and who has recently stepped aside for cancer treatment) tried to hired a hacker to delete the video off a website. The source claims the hacker was able to access the account, but couldn't delete it.

Do you know anything about that? Did you or your brother order someone to illegally hack into someone's account and delete the video?


10. What was in those mysterious packages?

In the ITO released last November, police surveillance shows you going to elaborate lengths to hide the fact that you were picking up packages from Sandro Lisi. In the ITO released this week, they say that your communications with him are "indicative to that of drug trafficking". The Globe and Mail has also detailed reports of your family's history with drug-dealing, which claim your friend and former staffer David Price and your brother Doug Ford sold large quantities of hash together during the 1980s.

So what was in those packages? Drugs? Nothing else? And if so, do you simply purchase drugs from Lisi? Or is there more to your relationship?

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Photo by the West Annex News (cropped, via the Wikimedia Commons)

The post also appears on The Little Red Umbrella.

The Disturbing Rob Ford Crack Scandal Timeline

It's not history yet, but this is my attempt to compile a timeline of what we know so far about the Rob Ford scandal, by piecing together news reports with the information about the police investigation into the Mayor's driver, Sandro Lisi, which was recently released by the courts. It's pretty much every important event I could find that seemed to be related to the Mayor's crack scandal, the alleged video-related extortion, and the killing of one of the men who appeared in the infamous photo Ford took with three alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods.

Obviously, there's still a LOT we don't know and much of the information that has been made available by the media and the police is based on anonymous sources, so I've tried to be as transparent as possible about where all this information came from. I've provided links wherever I could. Many of the allegations have yet to be proven in a court of law.

It's also probably worth noting that I'm not always sure which news organization was the first to report something — so the publications I mention are the ones I've used during this research and not necessarily the ones who broke the story. The "ITO" is the 474-page "information to obtain" document which was released by the courts, containing details the police provided with regards to their investigation into Sandro Lisi. (You can download a copy of the file here.)

It's been an eye-opening exercise. And a disturbing one. The scandal is even more worrying when you put it in order. The Mayor's crack-smoking might just be the tip of the iceberg. There are a LOT of other questions Torontonians deserve to have answered.

I hope the Mayor gets the help he needs.

Update: In the months since this post was originally published, some more information has, of course, emerged, changing some of the details we know about. Most notably, Ford's cellphone wasn't lost in late March, but on the night of April 19-20. 

SOME TIME EARLY IN 2013: THE ROB FORD VIDEO IS RECORDED

At some point, likely early this year, the Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, smoked crack and was apparently caught on video doing it. Both the Toronto Star and Gawker would later watch the video and publish reports about it. The Police Chief has confirmed the existence of a video consistent with the media's description. The Star says that the Mayor was:

 

"inhaling from what appears to be a glass crack pipe. Ford is incoherent, trading jibes with an off-camera speaker... he is heard calling [federal Liberal Party leader Justin] Trudeau a 'fag.' Later in the 90-second video he is asked about the football team [he coached at Don Bosco] and he appears to say (though he is mumbling), 'they are just f---ing minorities.'"

The Gawker account matches the Star's description in most respects — though editor John Cook says that he doesn't remember Ford making the comment about Trudeau, and that it was the voice off-screen who said it instead. "Ford, pipe in one hand and lighter in the other, is laughing, and mildly protesting at the sacrilege. He seems to keep trying to light the pipe, but keeps stopping to laugh. He is red-faced and sweaty, heaving with each breath. Finally, he finds his moment and lights up. He inhales."

Both the Star and Gawker were told that the video was taken "within the last six months". Given that Gawker heard about it in May and the Star adds that they were told it was taken "when snow was still on the ground," it seems that it probably happened sometime early this year.

Ford then spent months denying the existence of the video and claiming that he is not a user of crack cocaine before finally admitting it in early November. "Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine," he told reporters outside the office of the Mayor of Toronto, "Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago." Later he would tell the Toronto Sun, "I think I know what's on the video and I know it's not pretty. Did I smoke something? Probably. It's ugly." But he added that, "I am not a crackhead or junkie," and also claimed, "I wasn’t lying... No, I’m not an addict and no I do not do drugs." 


AT SOME POINT: THE INFAMOUS PHOTO IS TAKEN

Ford with Smith et al.

At some point in what appears to be light jacket weather, Rob Ford stood outside what appears to be 15 Windsor Road. There, he took a photo with three alleged members of a gang known as the Dixon City Bloods, or the Dixon Goonies. The house is about 300 meters away from a complex of apartment buildings on Dixon Road where police say the gang is known to operate. It is also allegedly a crack den. Many people assume it's where the video was taken. Both the Star and Gawker say the men who tried to sell the video used this photo as proof they were being serious.

In the ITO, the police say the house is "believed to be a crack house. Looked like drug trafficking going on." The document states that a confidential source told a detective that it's "a 'trap' house. The house belongs to a couple of crack heads but Dixon guys go there often to 'chop' crack or just hang out and get drunk." The ITO also says that the source has seen several alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods at the house, some of whom will play a large role in the Rob Ford scandal. Two of them are in the photo with the Mayor. One of those men is ANTHONY SMITH, who was then shot to death outside a nightclub at the end of March.

The Toronto Star has also reported that they "talked to people who witnessed drug activity there" and that they believe 15 Windsor has been used as a crack house. They also say that their sources tell them that another alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods has been seen at the house: MOHAMED SIAD, the man who would later try to sell them the Rob Ford video.

The house is the residence of what the Star calls an "old friend" of Ford's, FABIO BASSO, and his sister Elena. Basso's criminal record, according to the ITO, includes fraud, possession of narcotics, failure to attend court, driving with ability impaired, possession of a schedule I substance and possession of a prohibited weapon, while his sister's record includes (among other things) trafficking in and possession of a narcotic, being unlawfully at large, obstructing a peace officer, communicating for the purposes of prostitution, possession of property obtained by crime, theft, and an indecent act.

According to a report by the Star, a city official has told them that in January, a member of the Mayor's staff "called the city's water department on behalf of resident Fabio Basso regarding a sewage issue at 15 Windsor Rd." In the ITO, police describe a notebook containing entries relating to the house, the water department and outstanding bills. The police document suggests, "One possible explanation for these entries could be that the Mayor is dealing with house maintenance and bill payment at 15 Windsor Rd."

FEBRUARY 23: THE GARRISON BALL

Sandro Lisi (via CBC)

The Mayor made an appearance at the annual military gala and seemed, according to reports, to be intoxicated. Councillor Paul Ainslie said he was "approached by at least eight people who were concerned about the mayor’s state." After talking to the Mayor himself, Ainslie said he found Ford "somewhat incoherent" and told Ford's chief of staff at the time, MARK TOWHEY, that it would be a good idea for the Mayor to leave. It would be a few weeks before the Toronto Star published the story.

Ford's driver that night was apparently ALEXANDER (SANDRO) LISI, the same man who has now been charged with drug trafficking and extortion over the Ford video. According to the ITO, police have been told by a former Ford staffer that by the time of the Garrison Ball, Lisi had already been driving the Mayor around for a few months. "Everyone at the office was starting to wonder who LISI was." They also say this staffer "believes [Lisi] is a drug dealer" and that the chief of staff also shared those concerns: "Towhey had suspicions that Sandro was a drug dealer." The Star later reported that they had been told by their sources that Lisi brags about supplying the Mayor with drugs. The Globe and Mail reported that a source told them Ford was seen on Lisi's street "at least once a week" and that the two were friends. (Lisi lives just a few blocks away from the alleged crack house at 15 Windsor and the apartment complex on Dixon Road.)

By the time of the Garrison Ball, Lisi already had a long history of trouble with the law, as reported by the Star, including convictions for "threatening bodily harm, assault and criminal harassment for 'repeatedly' following a [...] woman," and "possession of marijuana under 30 grams." He was also, at the time of the Garrison Ball, facing charges for "uttering a death threat against a woman in 2011." In June of this year, he was convicted. He's appealing the decision. Others charges for "assault and harassment" of the same woman were dismissed not long after he drove the Mayor to the Ball in March.

Another man who is reported to have driven to the Garrison Ball with Ford and Lisi was BRUNO BELLISSIMO. The Star describes him as a "crack addict" "who lives in his parents' basement" and has "known Ford since high school days". He and Basso (the guy who lives at 15 Windsor) went to Don Bosco at the same time. The Globe reported that Bellissimo's mother told them he has been friends with Ford since they were kids. The ITO also mentions his criminal record, including fraud, theft and possession of property obtained by crime as well as his "consumption and addiction of crack cocaine." The ITO refers to him as a "self-admitted 'crack user'."


MARCH 2: About a week after the Garrison Ball, Bruno Bellissimo assaulted his parents. According to the ITO, he "threatened to kill his mother, spat in the faces of his parents and pushed his mother to the ground and hit her in her head and body." He was convicted in May and has since been "admitted to a substance-abuse program for treatment," according to the Star.


MARCH 8: Two weeks after the Garrison Ball, Ford is again thought to be publicly intoxicated, according to later reports. This time it's at the gala of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee. Sarah Thomson, who ran against Ford for Mayor, later says (according to this CityNews timeline) "Ford made inappropriate comments and grabbed her butt... Ford denies the allegations." Thomson later told a radio station that she thought Ford was on cocaine at the time, but had no proof.


MARCH 18: The Toronto Police Service begins Project Traveller, which the ITO describes as a "wiretap project" investigating "the alleged criminal activities" of the Dixon City Bloods. Much of the gang's activity, according to police, is centered around a complex of apartment buildings on Dixon Road, right next to the alleged crack house at 15 Windsor.

Phone records later revealed as part of the Lisi investigation and mentioned in the ITO, show that at this point calls were being made between Ford and Lisi's cellphones pretty much every day, usually more than once.


LATE MARCH: ROB FORD'S MISSING CELLPHONE

At some point in the "latter" part of March, Ford is rumoured to have lost his cellphone. The Toronto Star has reported that they learned about the story of the missing cellphone several months ago. They describe it as "an incident that panicked the mayor and some of his staff." They add that a source told them the phone "was apparently retrieved."

A leaked police document would later suggest that during this same month, Sandro Lisi was thought to have attempted to secure "the return of a cellular phone stolen from an associate" in exchange for marijuana. Ford is not mentioned by name, but the ITO does record — following a long segment of redacted information — that "A unified search query of Mayor Rob Ford does not reveal that his phone was reported stolen."


MARCH 25: At about 7pm, according to a report by the Globe and Mail, Ford showed up at the Toronto West Detention Centre long after visiting hours were over. The newspaper says the Mayor asked for a tour and then, when his request was refused, he asked to see Bruno Bellissimo, who was being held in the jail. The Globe says that request was also denied and Ford left.


MARCH 26: The Toronto Star published their story about Ford at the Garrison Ball. It was the first big public account of the Mayor's problems with public intoxication.


MARCH 28: THE DEATH OF ANTHONY SMITH

Shooting scene (via CP24)

In the wee hours of the morning, Anthony Smith (one of the alleged gang members in the photo with Ford) was shot in the head and killed at King & Portland. It happened at about 2:30 am, after he'd been at a club called Loki Lounge. Another one of the men from the photo, MUHAMMAD KHATTAK, was also shot ("in the chest and neck," according to the ITO) but he survived.

Two other alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods, NISAR HASHIMI and HANAD MOHAMED, were both eventually charged with first-degree murder. (Mohamed had fled to Fort MacMuray; the police tracked him down and arrested him there.) Police had initially described Smith's death as a "targeted" killing, but the charges against both men were later reduced. Hashimi plead guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault and was sentenced to nine years. According to a report by the Canadian Press about the "agreed statement of facts" in the case, Hashimi said he had "ongoing animosity" with Smith and Khattak. He admitted to shooting them both, but said he "'acted instinctively' and did not intend to kill Smith."

The media later reported that some people believe the Rob Ford video may have been on Anthony Smith's cellphone at the time he was killed. "There is now widespread belief Smith was killed for his phone, which may have contained the video," the Edmonton Sun wrote on May 30. The CBC reported that "some friends" of Smith believed "he might have had the video stored on his cellphone." And Ford's (now former) chief of staff, Mark Towhey, would later reveal that he heard a similar rumour in the days immediately following the first Gawker and Toronto Star reports about the video: "There were a lot of phone calls coming into the office from people... One of our staff received some information from someone he trusted that we didn't know... that [the video] might have been the motive for a murder."

According to the ITO, yet another alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods, AHMED DIRIE, was also there when Smith was killed. He was never charged in connection with the murder, but he would be arrested months later: during the Project Traveller raids in June. The ITO says that a police source told them that Dirie was also seen, at some point, at the alleged crack house at 15 Windsor.

The ITO also notes, among a long list of phone calls between Lisi and Ford:

March 28th, 2013: (Anthony SMITH is killed)
(a) LISI and Mayor FORD speak 7 times.


MARCH 30: Two days after the Smith killing, Sandro Lisi called Fabio Basso (who lives at 15 Windsor) five times, according the cellphone records in the ITO. It's the first time Basso is mentioned in those records, which go back to March 18.

MARCH 31 or APRIL 1: THE VIDEO IS NOW FOR SALE

Three or four days after the killing of Anthony Smith and about five days after their report on the Mayor's behaviour at the Garrison Ball, the Toronto Star was contacted about the Rob Ford video for the first time. (This article says it was on the 31st; this one says the 1st.) According to an article by Poynter, reporter Robyn Doolittle was contacted on her phone and met the man in a park. She says she was told the video was for sale and was shown the photo of Rob Ford posing with Anthony Smith and the other alleged members of the Dixon Bloods outside 15 Windsor.


APRIL 2: A day or two after the Star was contacted about the video, and about a week after the story about the Garrison Ball, DAVID PRICE was hired to join the Mayor's staff. He was given the newly-created title of "director of logistics." When the Globe and Mail asked Doug Ford about Price, all the Mayor's brother said was, "You can't teach loyalty."

The Globe would later publish an article called "The Ford family's history with drug dealing," (which also alleged the Ford family once had ties to the KKK) in which they claimed David Price and Doug Ford sold large quantities of hash together during the 1980s: "Several sources have identified David Price as a former participant in Doug Ford’s hashish enterprise." One source referred to it as "a partnership." Another added, "Doug brought the supply, and Dave brought the demand."


APRIL 20: According to the phone records in the ITO, on this Saturday morning between about 4:30 and 5:00 am, Sandro Lisi called Rob Ford's cellphone 19 times. He also called Fabio Basso (the guy who lives at 15 Windsor) twice.

Lisi continued to make a flurry of phone calls over the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, including six calls to LIBAN SIYAD. Siyad is another alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods and another man who the police source in the ITO says had been seen at 15 Windsor. He was later arrested as part of the Project Traveller raids in June. In their current charges against Lisi, the police claim that Siyad is one of the two possible victims of Lisi's alleged video-related extortion.


MAY 3: THE STAR SEES THE VIDEO

Robyn Doolittle (via Twitter)

It was this Friday night that the Toronto Star says they saw the video. Reporters Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan met with the man selling the video outside the apartment buildings on Dixon Road. The man who wanted to sell it was Mohamed Siad, described by the media as an alleged gun dealer, alleged crack dealer and alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods. "Money is protection," he told the reporters.


THE WEEK OF MAY 6: The week after the Star saw the video is the week Gawker editor John Cook says he received "a tip from someone claiming to have a videotape of Ford smoking crack." They also had the photo of Ford posing with the recently-killed Anthony Smith and the other alleged gang members. According to the post Cook would soon publish, he came to Toronto and was also taken to the Dixon Road apartment complex where the man who wanted to sell the video showed it to him.

Cook also said the tipster made three claims, that Rob Ford smoked crack, that there was a video, and that:

"Rob Ford purchases his crack cocaine from a crew of Toronto drug dealers that service a veritable who's who of A-list...Torontonians? Torontites? Anyway, a lot of prominent people in Toronto purchase and enjoy crack and powder cocaine, and they all buy it from the same folks. The same folks Ford buys it from. Ford's longtime friend, people on his staff, his brother, a prominent hockey analyst, and more."

The Toronto Sun would later also admit that, at some point, they received a call from someone who said they wanted to sell an embarrassing video of the Mayor. They didn't follow up.


MAY 8: The same week John Cook was travelling to Toronto to watch the video, our Mayor and Sandro Lisi attended a Leafs game together at the Air Canada Centre. According to a report from the Star, "Ford and Lisi disappeared together into a small washroom in the director's lounge, with no explanation given when they emerged."


MAY 14: This is the day our Mayor "sprinted" out of a Community Council meeting and went around slapping a bunch of "Rob Ford Mayor" magnets on the cars in the parking lot. David Price helped him.


BY THIS POINT: Police say they had already learned about the video.


MAY 16: THE NIGHT THE VIDEO STORY BROKE

At 8:28pm, Gawker published their account of the video. By the end of the night, the Toronto Star was reporting that they had seen the video, too.

But that afternoon, according to Gawker, before they published their story, they told CNN about it. One of CNN's Canadian reporters then called "a source who used to work in Rob Ford's office" to ask about it. Gawker's editor, John Cook, called that "a pretty fucking big mistake" and said that, "Within 40 minutes, word had gotten back to me that 'CNN called Ford's office asking about a crack tape.'" So it's assumed by some that the Mayor knew the story was coming just before it was published.

Ten minutes before Gawker's story went online, the ITO's phone records show that Rob Ford called Sandro Lisi. That call lasted 40 seconds.

Then, according to those phone records, Lisi started making his own calls, including a series of phonecalls to Fabio Basso (at 15 Windsor) and Liban Siyad (the possible victim of the alleged extortion). The first series of calls was around 9:30pm. He then called them again at about 2:00 in the morning.

According to the charges against Lisi, police allege the video-related extortion happened during this period: sometime between May 16 and May 18.


MAY 17: THE DAY AFTER

The morning after the video story broke, Ford was faced with reporters outside his home. "Absolutely not true," he told them. "It's ridiculous. It's another Toronto Star whatever." David Price was there, too, helping to keep the reporters at bay. And so was Sandro Lisi.

That same morning, the Star says Ford held a meeting. They wrote about it later:

"sources have told the Star that at a meeting the morning news of the video broke, Ford cited 'our contacts' and told close confidants not to worry because he knew where the video was, and provided two apartment addresses in the Dixon Rd. complex. Later that day, Price sought out Ford chief of staff Mark Towhey, and raised the 'hypothetical' question: What if he knew where the video was, what would be done? At one point, according to an account of the conversation, the straitlaced Towhey was heard to remark, 'We’re not getting the f—ing thing!' Towhey reported his concerns to police and was interviewed by detectives that weekend."

Meanwhile, according to the phone records in the ITO, Sandro Lisi kept making telephone calls. He called Fabio Basso (at 15 Windsor) five times that day. He also called Mohamed Siad (the man selling the video) twice that afternoon. Siad, according to the charges against Lisi, is the other potential victim of Lisi's alleged extortion.

Here's the detail of that charge as reported by NOW's Johnathan Goldsbie: it's alleged that Lisi "did induce Mohamed SIAD or Liban SIYAD by threats or violence or menaces to deliver said digital video recording to Alexander LISI Contrary to the Criminal Code."

According to the phone records, the Mayor called Lisi 5 times in a span of 17 minutes late that afternoon. His executive assistant, Thomas Beyer, had also placed a call to Lisi that day. Ford then called Lisi again at about 9 o'clock that night.

Around 11:30pm, Lisi called Siad two more times, according to those records. Both of those calls lasted only 3 seconds.

The phone records also show that Lisi was in frequent contact with David Price this day. The ITO suggests they called each other more than a dozen times.

Meanwhile, according to the Star's report on email records released under the Freedom of Information act, on this day Ford's current chief of staff (then his deputy chief of staff) EARL PROVOST stopped sending emails — the last one at 1:18 in the afternoon — and didn't start again for four days. The Star points out that they don't know if that's because he didn't send any emails through that account, or because not all of the records have been released as they should have been. "Provincial law does not include a penalty for refusing to disclose the existence of requested records," they add. His inbox also apparently went silent at this point, with no messages reported as having been received over the next three days.

This is the same day Gawker launched a Crackstarter campaign to raise the money to buy the video.


MAY 18: TWO DAYS AFTER

Det.-Sgt. Giroux (via the Star)

Two days after the video story broke, the Toronto Police Service put a homicide detective, Detective Sergeant Gary Giroux, on the case: "Specifically to investigate the existence of a cellular phone containing a video of FORD smoking crack cocaine," according to the ITO.

The phone records show that on this night, Lisi and Ford called each other back and forth at the same time Lisi was making calls to Mohamed Siad (the man selling the video and one of the possible victims of the alleged extortion). According to the information in the ITO, Ford and Lisi would be in close contact over the course the next week, as they usually were, calling each other multiple times every day.

This day also marks the end of the period in which the police allege that Lisi extorted Siad or Siyad in order to recover the video. If that's true and the charges by the police are found to be accurate, it seems logical to conclude that by the end of this day, Lisi had recovered the video.

This is also the first day, according to what VICE claims they were told by an "anonymous source" that the Mayor's current director of communications — who was working in Doug Ford's office back then — allegedly contacted a hacker in order to break into an online account where the video was being hosted. The subdomain name of that webpage was reportedly "goonies," which suggests a possible link to the Dixon City Bloods.

According to the source in the VICE report, the staffer first emailed the hacker from his official City of Toronto account (before switching to Yahoo): "Got something I want you to look into. Think you probably know what's been reported. What's the best way we can talk… T said you might be able to help us again."

According to VICE: "the hacker told VICE that 'T' stands for Mark Towhey." (The mayor's chief of staff.)

VICE continues: "During one of our interviews with the hacker in August, he told us that Amin [the staffer] and Ford were certain the goonies directory was the last and only place the video existed because the phone used to film the crack tape was 'gone.'"

Also according to claims made by the source in the VICE report, the staffer offered to match the $200,000 from Gawker's Crackstarter fund plus an additional 10% in order to ensure the hacker wouldn't sell the video to someone else once he had retrieved it.

The hacker told VICE that he was eventually able to download two videos from the website, but was unable to delete them.

The staffer has denied the allegations, calling it a "disturbing and false story."


MAY 20: On the Monday after the video story broke, Sandro Lisi made a visit to 15 Windsor and talked with Fabio Basso, according to a report by the Star. They published an account of the conservation:

"'Where are the guys who made the video, Fab,' Lisi said, according to a witness who was present. 'You know where they are.'

Fabio Basso, a quiet man, was nervous. 'They’re gone. Out of town. Gone to Windsor,' said Basso.

MAY 21: The very next day, Sandro Lisi was again seen making a visit to 15 Windsor, according to a Star source.

Around 11:00 o'clock that night, there was a call to police about an "assault in progress" at 15 Windsor. The Star later reported that "Fabio [Basso], his girlfriend, and Fabio's mother were assaulted by an unknown attacker brandishing an expandable baton who broke into their home."


MAY 22: Rob Ford was fired from coaching football at Don Bosco.

He also attended the funeral of Toronto Sun reporter Peter Worthington, where his staffers handed out "Rob Ford Mayor" magnets to the mourners.

The Sun later reported that sources told them that on this night, Rob Ford wanted to throw a pizza party for his now-former football players. His chief of staff, Mark Towhey, "balked" at the idea. The Mayor also wanted to retrieve the football equipment he had donated to the school. Towhey, said a Sun source, talked him out of it.

That night, Towhey sent an email to staffers with the subject line: "Direct order." It said, "Do not answer calls from the mayor tonight. Take the night off."


MAY 23: The very next day, Ford fired Towhey. A source told the CBC it was because Towhey told the Mayor to "go away and get help."


MAY 24: A week after news of the video first broke, Ford made his first statement since the few words he gave reporters the next day. This time he stood outside the office of the Mayor of Toronto and said, "I don't use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine." He added, "I cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist."


MAY 26: On the Ford brothers' Sunday radio show, the Mayor blatantly denied the existence of the video. "Number one, there’s no video, so that's all I can say. You can’t comment on something that doesn't exist." He also called reporters "a bunch of maggots." When a caller asked the Mayor if that is, in fact, him in the photo with the recently-killed Anthony Smith and the other alleged gang members, Doug Ford accuses her of being "racist."


MAY 27-31: Over the course of the next week, several members of Rob Ford's staff quit their jobs. According to the phone records in the ITO, Ford and Lisi call each other 6 times during Monday and Tuesday, but then, unusually, not at all until the following week.


JUNE 4: Gawker said they'd been told by their contact that the video no longer exists.
  

JUNE 13: THE PROJECT TRAVELLER RAIDS

Project Traveller (via National Post)

Early in the morning of this day, nearly a month after news of the video first broke, the police moved against the Dixon City Bloods. According to a CTV News report, 42 tactical police teams from 17 different agencies raided the Dixon Road apartment complex. They arrested 44 people and seized weapons, drugs, money, and other items, including one very important hard drive.

That hard drive, according to police, contained a deleted copy of the Rob Ford video. (It would, however, be more than four months before the police recovered the file.) The Police Chief also later revealed that there was a second video of the Mayor also recovered on the same hard drive.

Some of the people arrested in the raids had familiar names (all alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods):

Mohamed Siad: the man selling the Rob Ford video and one of the possible victims of Lisi's alleged extortion. He was charged with "trafficking in firearms, participating in a criminal organization and trafficking in cocaine." The Toronto Sun later reported that "unnamed sources" told them Siad subsequently attempted to use the Rob Ford video as leverage against his charges, but prosecutors refused. Days after Siad was arrested in the raids, he was stabbed in prison. The Sun says a source told them he was attacked by alleged gang members who "wrongly blamed him for the heat coming down on them in Project Traveller because of the alleged crack video."

Liban Siyad: the other possible victim of Lisi's alleged extortion. The ITO also says that a police source told them that he had been seen at 15 Windsor.

Muhammad Khuttak: one of the men in the photo taken with Ford outside what appears to be 15 Windsor. He was the second victim in the shooting that killed Anthony Smith. He was charged with "participating in a criminal organization by trafficking cocaine, and trafficking in a substance held out to be marijuana."

Monar Kasim: the third man in the photo with Ford. He was charged, according to the Star, with "trafficking in weapons and drugs for the benefit of a criminal organization, as well as charges of breach of house arrest, theft under $5,000 and conspiracy to commit unauthorized possession of a firearm."

Ahmed Dirie: the other man who was said to have been present at the murder of Anthony Smith and was said by a police source, as reported in the ITO, as having been seen at 15 Windsor.


JUNE 14: Lisi's sentencing hearing (after his conviction for threatening to kill a woman). A letter of support from Rob Ford was submitted, written on official City of Toronto stationary. Months later, when the media tried to ask the Mayor about it, he refused to answer and walked away. "Anything else? Thanks. It’s over. Forget it, forget it. Done."


JUNE 15: "PROJECT BRAZEN 2" IS UNDERWAY

Police surveillance photo

At this point, I'm not entirely clear on whether the code-name "Project Brazen 2" refers to the police investigation of Sandro Lisi or of the Mayor himself and whether it might have already started before this point. But June 15 — two days after the Project Traveller raids — is the date of the earliest surveillance of Lisi recorded in the non-redacted portions of the ITO. That document describes frequent appearances by the Mayor while the police were watching Lisi over the next few months. The ITO reports that Ford and Lisi met repeatedly at the ESSO station just down the street from the Mayor's house and in the parking lot of nearby Scarlett Heights, where the Ford brothers and David Price all went to high school. Police say that on several occasionas when Lisi met Ford, he dropped a bag off with the Mayor.

The ITO also suggests that during the investigation, Lisi frequently used what the document describes as counter-surveillance techniques — stuff like erratic driving, U-turns, high speeds, and running stop signs or red lights. At one point, they suggest he bought a "burner" cellphone to evade their efforts to track him. They used, among other things, a camera mounted on a telephone pole outside Lisi's home, a special mobile unit, an undercover officer, cellphone tracking and wiretaps (the records of which have not yet been released, but will be very soon). The ITO even describes police searching a van registered to Lisi's father while Ford and Lisi were off together sitting in another nearby high school parking lot. By the end of June, the police had started using an airplane to follow Lisi around. But after noise complaints from residents and a threat to expose the surveillance technique to the Toronto Star, the police reconsidered that tactic. Later, Doug Ford would tell the Toronto Sun that the Ford family was aware of the aerial surveillance. "I stood there and gave them the finger," he said.

Meanwhile, the police continued to conduct interviews with both current and former members of the Mayor's staff.


JUNE 25: This was the day that a judge gave the police permission to access Sandro Lisi's phone records all the way back to the beginning of Project Traveller in March. The police would have to get permission again, later, for Lisi's phone records after this date — which makes this the dividing line between the two batches. The ITO notes a "dramatic change" between the two. After this date, Ford and Lisi generally stopped using Ford's cellphone and started using the Mayor's OnStar and his home lines instead. Before this date, Lisi had no contact with a number registered to DECO (the Ford family company), but after this date, he started to have regular contact with it: 50 calls over the course of the next few weeks.


JULY 28: This is the day police say they saw Lisi and Ford meet at Scarlett Heights after Ford made a late afternoon trip to a nearby LCBO. They sat and talked and ate — and at one point, the Mayor got out and urinated on a tree. Ford also threw out some garbage; police later checked it and discovered empty vodka bottles.


AUGUST 9: THE TASTE OF THE DANFORTH

(photo posted by @JamieCastillo_)

This is the night tweets and videos started appearing from people who said they saw Rob Ford stumbling around drunk at the Taste of the Danforth. Months later, after more denials about his drinking problem, the Mayor eventually apologized for being "hammered" that night. (Phone records also later revealed that he called Lisi around the time of his arrival in the neighbourhood of the festival.)

Later that night, according to the ITO, at about 1 o'clock in the morning, a CBC reporter saw the Mayor at that same ESSO station down the street from his house. The reporter asked the Mayor about having made "big news" that night and Ford replied, "I'm big news. I'm a big guy... I guess anything happens with me is big, right?"

At 2:29 am, also according to the ITO, Sandro Lisi called the police to complain about a "white minivan" "circling the area" near the Mayor's house. The document says he refused to give his name. Police report that he called back a few minutes later to give them the plate number and told them the van was "driving around the area at a high rate of speed." The ITO says the van turned out to be registered to the CBC and by the time the police arrived, it was already gone.


AUGUST 13: This is the day police say Ford and Lisi met in Weston Woods Park (which was actually renamed "Douglas Ford Park" in honour of the Mayor's father in 2009). It's right across the street from the plaza where the Globe alleges that Doug Ford sold drugs during the 1980s, just behind the house where the Mayor's mother lives, and just a minute up the street from Scarlett Heights, where the Mayor, his brother, and David Price all went to high school. According to the ITO:

"LISI and Mayor FORD eventually met and made their way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour... Surveillance officers were able to locate the area in Weston Wood Park where LISI and FORD met, a vodka and juice bottle were seized from this spot."

AUGUST 17: The Star published an article about the police investigation into Sandro Lisi.

On the same day, the ITO says Lisi again called police to complain about a vehicle he claimed was speeding — this time on his own street. When the police checked the plate number, it proved, once again, to be a reporter.


AUGUST 18: The ITO says police watched Ford and Lisi meet in the parking lot of Scarlett Heights on this day. This time, they were accompanied by another man, MLANDEN MANDERALO, who is recorded in the ITO as having been repeatedly seen with Lisi and Ford during the investigation. Police say he took up a position on the bleachers while Lisi and Ford hung out in the parking lot inside the Mayor's Escalade. (The ITO says that Lisi had arrived in a Safari van registered to his father.) The document doesn't say whether police thought Manderalo was acting as a lookout on this day — but in later reports, they suggest that he checks cars for Lisi as "a counter surveillance method." 

The cops got made. According to the ITO:

"After approximately twenty-five minutes, it is believed that one of the three [men] had spotted one of the surveillance vehicles in the area. MANDERALO was observed using his cellular phone and running toward [Lisi's van]. The surveillance vehicle slowly left the area [...] LISI was observed getting back on board [his dad's] van with MANDERALO and both Mayor FORD and the Safari van left the parking lot at a high rate of speed, Mayor FORD was observed continuing at a high rate of speed [in] the last known direction of the surveillance vehicle. [...]

"Mayor FORD and LISI then circled the neighborhood for a short time. LISI and MANDERALO were observed parking in the plaza lot at 1500 Royal York Road [that's the same plaza where the Globe alleges that Doug Ford and David Price sold drugs in the '80s, across the street from Douglas Ford Park], the two then walked over to the parking lot where they had previously met Mayor FORD, they were observed looking at all vehicles that passed by them."

That same day, the Globe and Mail published a quote Ford gave to the Sun, in which he defended Lisi: "He is a great guy and he is as straight as an arrow."


AUGUST 23: According to the ITO, a member of the Mayor's staff called the police on this day in order to relay a complaint from Ford: he says he's being followed. The police say they were then given a plate number that was just one letter different from the plate of the surveillance vehicle the Mayor, Lisi and Manderalo had seen at Scarlett Heights five days earlier. The police offered to speak with Ford directly, but it seems he never followed up personally.

Instead, the ITO says that the next day Earl Provost (the Mayor's new chief of staff) asked the police to give him the registration information of the vehicle. He also, according to the document, told them that Ford was angry with him for not being able to "give him what he wants." The police say they told him that it was confidential information and couldn't be given out.

In the ITO, the police write that the actions "clearly indicate that Mayor FORD is utilizing his position and the powers of the Office of the Mayor, to obtain information not available to regular citizens... I believe that Mayor FORD was trying to get the registration information for the vehicle that he and LISI observed on August 18th, 2013."


AUGUST 24: THE UNDERCOVER OPERATION BEGINS

Richview Cleaners (via the Sun)

It was on this day, according to the ITO, that police launched the undercover operation that would eventually land Sandro Lisi in jail. They say the phone records and surveillance showed Lisi was in frequent contact with a dry cleaners in Richview Plaza — making and receiving calls to that location even at the height of the Ford scandal in the days after the news of the video broke. The ITO says that a source told police that "LISI delivers marihuana to Richview Cleaners 2 to 4 times per week." The document also says the police saw Lisi make frequent personal visits to that location.

So on this day, an undercover officer dropped some dry cleaning off — with rolling papers purposely left in the pocket. Those zig zags would provide the excuse to start a conversation about marijuana with the owner, JAMSHID BAHRAMI. Police say the ruse worked. Over the course of the next two months, their records show the undercover officer arranging to buy a large amount of pot through Bahrami.

According to the ITO, "Information on the identity of BAHRAMI's supplier of marihuana was provided to the undercover officer, that being a male known as 'Sandro' who was described as the Mayor's bodyguard... BAHRAMI advises that his guy is SANDRO and that SANDRO is Rob FORD's bodyguard... It is the opinion of investigators that LISI is the supplier for BAHRAMI."

But the ITO also says that the first attempt by police to buy marijuana supplied by Lisi didn't work out. Bahrami, according to the document, told police that Sandro "cannot do it because he has too many problems right now." Instead, the ITO says he hooked the officer up with another supplier from the jewellery store next door — and that a little less than two weeks after the undercover police officer first made contact with the dry cleaner, he was able to buy a pound of weed off the jeweller.


AUGUST 27: David Price missed a train at the Georgetown GO Station and freaked out. He told a GO employee to "fuck off" and broke a door. When a journalist later asked him about it, he is reported to have answered, "Yeah, fuck you dickhead, what are you going to do about it?"

When reporters asked the Mayor about his staffer's behaviour, he replied, "It's actually no one's business what happens in my office."


AUGUST 28: Mayor Ford admitted to the media that he has smoked "a lot" of pot.


SEPTEMBER  27: According to the ITO, the undercover police officer began another attempt to buy marijuana supplied by Sandro Lisi. The documents states, "BHARAMI advises that Sandro is getting 'psycho.' Says Sandro is panicking and thinks that BHARAMI is setting him up... Sandro advises that everyone is after him since the newspaper article." Still, complaining that the contact at the jewellery store was unreliable and that his prices were too high, the officer said he wanted to buy from Lisi instead.


OCTOBER 1: This time, according to the police, the plan worked. The ITO states that the undercover officer bought half a pound of pot from Bharami and that police then waited for Lisi to pick up the money. When he arrived at the dry cleaners and went inside, the police say they entered the building and found Lisi with the same money they had just paid for the drugs inside his pocket. They also say he had a ginger ale can with a hidden compartment in his possession — he dropped it during the raid — which contained a small amount of what "appeared and smelt like" pot.

Lisi was charged with "possession of and trafficking in marijuana, possession of the proceeds of crime and conspiracy." The video-related extortion charge would be added later.


OCTOBER 29: This is the date that, according to the Police Chief, the police were able to recover the videos of the Mayor that were on the hard drive they had seized during the Project Traveller raids four and a half months earlier.


OCTOBER 31: THE WEIRDEST HALLOWEEN EVER

A month after the police arrested Sandro Lisi, the ITO related to his case was released. The Police Chief announced that the police have the two videos of the Mayor in their possession. And everything went crazy.

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Top photo via Canada.com

The post also appears on The Little Red Umbrella.